INTERVIEW: The Hidden Infrastructure Problem Behind Africa’s Stablecoin Surge

In this exclusive interview with Impact Newswire, Will Harborne, founder and chief executive of Rhino.fi, identifies fragmentation across liquidity pools, blockchain networks, and off-ramp systems as the weakest points in the current stack, arguing that the challenge is not custody or wallets in isolation but coordination across multiple layers of infrastructure. He reveals that in remittance-heavy markets, where users depend on stablecoins for essential income flows, any failure in these systems ultimately lands on end users or the fintechs closest to them, making reliability and resilience a core design requirement rather than a technical upgrade. He also acknowledges that African fintechs remain exposed to external dependencies, including offshore issuers and foreign banking partners, but suggests this is not fixed, as local firms are increasingly building ownership of product and compliance layers while still relying on global stablecoin networks underneath.

Across much of Africa’s digital economy, stablecoins have moved from the periphery of crypto speculation into the centre of how money actually moves. They now account for an estimated 43% of all crypto transaction volume on the continent, according to Chainalysis’ 2024 geography of crypto report, making them the dominant form of on-chain activity. 

That shift has been reinforced by a parallel movement in policy circles, where regulators from Nigeria to Kenya are drafting frameworks to govern digital assets rather than restrict them outright, and by investors who are increasingly backing infrastructure plays such as on-chain neobanks, cross-border payment rails, and stablecoin settlement systems.

But beneath the momentum sits a less visible and more fragile layer that is only now becoming a central concern for builders: the infrastructure stack that makes stablecoin usage possible in the first place. Unlike earlier waves of fintech innovation that largely sat on top of domestic banking systems and mobile money rails, many of the companies driving stablecoin adoption in Africa are building directly on dollar-denominated tokens such as USDC and USDT. In practice, that means they are not integrating with traditional banking infrastructure as a fallback layer. They are substituting it.

That architectural choice has consequences that are still underappreciated in the policy debate. Stablecoin-based products in Africa are often designed for cross-border remittances, merchant payments, and dollar savings in environments where local currencies are volatile and access to hard currency is constrained. But their reliability is only as strong as the underlying liquidity, custody, and settlement infrastructure that supports them. When those systems fail or fragment, the impact is immediate. Transactions stall, remittances are delayed, and users who are often relying on these tools for essential income flows are left exposed.

This is where the distinction between adoption and infrastructure maturity becomes critical. Usage metrics suggest rapid mainstreaming. The underlying systems that support that usage, including liquidity provisioning, on- and off-ramps, compliance layers, and cross-chain settlement routes, are still uneven and in some cases experimental. The result is a financial stack that can appear robust at the user level while remaining structurally brittle beneath it.

It is against this backdrop that Will Harborne, founder and chief executive of Rhino.fi, a London-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that focuses on cross-chain liquidity, sat down with Tech Editor Faustine Ngila in this exclusive interview. 

1. Stablecoins now account for over 40% of crypto transactions in Africa. What is driving this rapid adoption, and how sustainable is it without robust underlying infrastructure?

A large share of stablecoin usage in Africa is driven by real retail utility: payments, remittances, and storing value in markets where local currency volatility and high transfer costs are a daily issue. That makes adoption more sustainable than many people assume, because it is tied to practical needs rather than speculation. What matters now is whether the infrastructure catches up, so those flows are reliable, compliant, and easy for fintechs and neobanks to support at scale. We are also seeing more businesses add stablecoin functionality because their customers already want to hold and transact in stablecoins. At Rhino.fi, a lot of what we focus on is helping platforms respond to that demand without having to build the full operational stack themselves.

2. Many African fintechs are building directly on stablecoins like USDC and USDT rather than integrating with traditional banking rails. What risks does this “native” approach introduce at the deposit and settlement layer?

Building natively on stablecoins can actually be a major advantage, because it lowers the cost and complexity of launching financial products and allows companies to move faster than if they had to stitch together fragmented banking integrations. The challenge is that the deposit and settlement layer is harder to run than it looks. The pain points are usually around deposit detection, wrong assets or wrong chains, liquidity across chains, and making funds available to users in a predictable way. That is exactly where infrastructure matters. Rhino.fi’s role is to abstract away that multi-chain complexity so fintechs can offer stablecoin products without each needing a large internal crypto engineering and treasury team.

3. You have argued that the infrastructure gap is being overlooked. Where, specifically, are the weakest points today in Africa’s stablecoin stack, custody, liquidity, or off-ramps?

The weakest points today are less about the concept of stablecoins and more about the operational stack around them. In many African markets, the bigger issues are liquidity fragmentation, chain fragmentation, and the consistency of local off-ramp infrastructure. A good example is the importance of USDT on TRON in many payment flows. It works well for low-cost transfers, but it can create complexity for businesses that also need interoperability with other chains, assets, and treasury systems. In practice, this is why infrastructure providers like Rhino.fi matter. The real need is not just custody or wallets in isolation, but orchestration across chains, assets, and payment flows in a way that is simple enough for mainstream fintech teams to integrate.

4. In markets where remittances are a lifeline, what happens when stablecoin-based systems fail or face disruptions? Who ultimately bears the risk?

In remittance-heavy markets, reliability matters because users are often moving essential household money, not speculative capital. One of the main attractions of stablecoins is that they can settle faster and more cheaply than legacy cross-border rails. If a stablecoin-based system fails, the immediate burden usually falls on the user or the fintech closest to the customer, because that is where trust sits. That is why the infrastructure layer matters so much: the technology may be global, but the service obligation is always local. The answer is not to avoid stablecoins, but to make the rails more resilient and the user experience more reliable. That is one of the reasons we think the next wave of value creation will come from infrastructure, not just from issuing or holding stablecoins.

5. Regulators in countries like Kenya and Nigeria are moving toward formal frameworks. Do you see regulation catching up to innovation, or is there a risk of legitimizing systems that are not yet resilient?

Regulation is becoming more timely now because the market is moving from experimentation into real payment, savings, and treasury use cases. I do not see regulation as being in conflict with adoption. The right frameworks should help protect users, improve resilience, and create clearer standards for the companies building in this space. For infrastructure providers like Rhino.fi, that is a positive development. As stablecoins become part of regulated financial services rather than just crypto markets, the demand for compliant, enterprise-grade infrastructure only increases.

6. How exposed are African fintechs to external dependencies, such as stablecoin issuers or foreign banking partners, and what does that mean for financial sovereignty on the continent?

Many African fintechs are still exposed to external dependencies, including offshore stablecoin issuers, foreign banking partners, and global crypto infrastructure providers. That creates concentration risk and can leave local businesses exposed to decisions made outside their home markets. But that does not mean the outcome has to be dependency. There is a great deal of local innovation, and over time I expect more African companies to own more of the product, compliance, and customer relationship layers, even if they continue to use global stablecoin networks underneath. Partners like Rhino.fi can help bridge that gap by giving local fintechs access to global stablecoin infrastructure without forcing them to rebuild everything from scratch.

7. There is growing investor interest in on-chain neobanks and stablecoin settlement platforms. Are we seeing genuine infrastructure being built, or speculative capital moving ahead of fundamentals?

We are seeing genuine infrastructure being built, not just speculative capital chasing a narrative. A lot of the demand is tied to practical use cases such as remittances, business payments, savings, and cross-border settlement. The real test is whether a company is solving operational problems like deposits, liquidity, compliance, reconciliation, and off-ramping, or simply wrapping stablecoins in a fashionable story. From our perspective, the strongest builders in Africa are very focused on utility. Many are building real financial products for real users, and that is exactly the type of platform Rhino.fi is designed to support.

8. You suggest that Africa may be where the most important questions about stablecoin infrastructure are answered. What lessons from African markets could shape global standards for digital payments and financial systems?

African markets are important because they are often solving the real-world utility problem earlier and more directly than developed markets. In places where traditional payment rails are expensive, slow, or inaccessible, users adopt new infrastructure because it works better. That creates a valuable testing ground for the global industry. Lessons from African markets around mobile-first design, low-cost cross-border settlement, and stablecoin-native financial products are likely to shape how digital payments evolve elsewhere. I think one of the most important lessons is that if stablecoins are going to become mainstream, the user experience has to be simple and trustworthy. That is the broader shift Rhino.fi is focused on enabling, making stablecoin rails usable for businesses in a way that feels like modern fintech infrastructure rather than crypto complexity.

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